Summary: AN AVERAGE PERSON WITH AN ABOVE AVERAGE KNOWLEDGE

Intro: Able was a son that listened to his parents. They told their sons of how God structured the process of anointment. Three things were explained to these young men. Able got the importance of all three.

When the ship Empress of Ireland sank, 109 of the 130 Salvation Army officers on board drowned. Not one of them had a life vest. As the ship went down, the crew discovered that the ship was not carrying enough life jackets for everyone. The Salvation Army officers removed theirs and strapped them on the passengers. - Herb Miller, "What Constitutes a Healthy Congregation?" The Parish Paper (American Baptist Churches of Indiana, 1997) When I give of my limited resources to the extent that it creates a perceived need in my life, it shows that my dependence is on God, not my checking account, not people, and not my own self-sufficiency.

2. Your Sacrifice Will Confuse Others.

Just a few days before Jesus’ death, He was in the home of Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Not long after the meal had been served, one of Lazarus’ sisters, Mary, took a bottle of very expensive perfume and poured it on Jesus’ feet. Immediately, one of Jesus’ disciples, Judas Iscariot started to put up a fuss. “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money used to help feed the poor?” From a human perspective, the argument that Judas gave was a good one. If his assessment of the value of the perfume was correct, it was worth almost a year’s pay since the average amount that a person could earn in any one day was a denarii.

You’ve all filled out your tax forms by now. You’ve looked at that W-2 over and over again. You know how much you earned last year. If you’re like me, during the year, you wish that you were earning more money, but when it comes time to pay your taxes, you wish that you had earned less money so you wouldn’t have to pay so much taxes. Now imagine bringing a year’s salary in cash to church next Sunday, carrying it to the front of the church and setting fire to it. You can hear the shouts of people as they see the flames begin to grow. “You idiot! We could have paid a year’s rent on the building with that money!” “Why did you go and do a stupid thing like that?! We could have put a down-payment on a piece of land with that!” “That was a total waste! What good does it do anyone now?!” We can justify a gift when we see tangible results that come out of the gift. But ultimate acts of worship are not very easily justified.

II. The Necessity of a Relationship

1. The whole reason for the sacrifice is because God desired a relationship with man